Eagles round off AFCON qualifiers beat Seychelles 3-1
Nations cup bound Super Eagles Friday at the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba rounded off the qualifiers with a 3-1 defeat of Seychelles. The defeat implies that the Pirates conceded six goals in two legged encounter with Eagles managing to score only one goal.
Though the Eagles could be said to be unimpressive considering the quality of their opponents the Ahmed Musa captained side nonetheless managed to seal a 3-1 victory with the 90th minute goal scored by late substitute Moses Simon as the best goal of the match
Odion Ighalo had converted a penalty in the 35th minute to hand Eagles the first goal only for the Pirates to equalse few minutes later capitalizing on miscalculation by goalkeeper Francis Uzoho.
Henry Onyekuru however lifted the Eagles again in the 50th minute and late substitute Moses Simon proved that he was indeed a good material when he produced the icing on the cake just few minutes after being introduced in the pitch.
The Match appeared to have given Coach Gernot Rohr an opportunity to experiment new play pattern. The German tactician paid more attention to operating through the middle as opposed to usual wing play.
Ahmed Musa known for coming in through the flanks this time was pulled into the middle perhaps to coordinate in the absence of John Obi Mikel.
The team will now focus on shaping up for the Nations cup in June, with friendly match against Pharaohs of Egypt on Tuesday at the same venue.
As for Seychelles, they proved to be the underdogs of the group. The Pirates unbelievably conceded basketful of goals in the course of the qualifiers with three goals for and 25 goals against.